Florida has the jobs. Can the workforce keep pace?

Key points:

• Slowing workforce growth is pushing Florida business schools to rethink talent pipelines despite strong job demand.

• Universities are embedding AI across business curricula through new majors, minors, and discipline-specific applications.

• Schools are deepening employer partnerships and experiential learning to co-develop job-ready talent.

• Leaders stressed that critical thinking, judgment, and human skills are becoming more valuable as AI accelerates work.

February 2026 — Florida still has plenty of jobs. What it has less of is the workforce growth that once kept pace.

The state’s population reached 23.38 million as of April 1, 2025, according to Florida’s Demographic Estimating Conference. But the composition of that growth is shifting. Between July 2024 and June 2025, Florida added nearly 179,000 residents through international migration, while net domestic migration slowed to just over 22,500 — a sharp deceleration from earlier in the decade, U.S. Census Bureau data show.

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For employers, the demand for talent remains substantial. In October 2025, Florida reported 515,000 job openings and a 4.9% job openings rate, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported.

That reality is reshaping how Florida’s business schools approach workforce preparation. Across the state, institutions are redesigning curricula, deepening industry partnerships, and expanding flexible delivery models to prepare both students and working professionals for an economy increasingly defined by AI, compressed skills cycles, and a rising premium on human judgment.

Embedding AI

At the University of Miami Herbert Business School, Dean Paul Pavlou described a broad approach designed to keep pace with rapidly evolving business applications. “AI is obviously front and center for Miami Herbert Business School, and as perhaps the most powerful and transformative technology in the history of humanity, we are extensively and deliberatively integrating AI into our curriculum,” Pavlou said.

Pavlou outlined a four-part model that updates course content, refreshes programs by discipline, creates dedicated AI pathways, and expands interdisciplinary offerings. “Because AI is moving so quickly in industry, our premise is to infuse it comprehensively across the curriculum, and we do that in four key ways,” he said. That includes formalizing new credentials: “This past fall, we launched an AI minor, which has quickly become one of the most popular minors at the university. Starting this fall, we’re introducing an AI major, focused on the business applications of AI with a strong technical foundation.”

At Florida Atlantic University’s College of Business, Dean Daniel Gropper emphasized a similarly integrated approach. “We incorporate AI applications in many of our business classes. The implementation varies depending on the subject matter, whether it is finance, marketing, or economics. However, AI is integrated across the curriculum, ensuring that students utilize these tools in their coursework,” Gropper said.

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Co-developing talent

As employers adjust roles and workflows around automation, many schools are strengthening experiential learning as a core output of business education.

Pavlou framed the relationship with employers as collaborative by design. “More broadly, we view industry not only as the customer of our talent, but as a co-developer of talent (our students),” he said. “Instead of seeing employers only as end customers, we collaboratively work with them throughout the educational process. Through internships, real-world projects, and executive engagement, companies help define and help us develop the skills that matter to them.”

That emphasis on outcomes and applied experience is increasingly central to how schools communicate value to students as well. Gropper put it directly: “We focus on providing experiential learning opportunities so that students are well-prepared to transition into the workforce,” he said.

Entrepreneurship, accelerated

AI is also compressing the timeline from idea to execution, changing what schools expect students to produce while still enrolled.

“About a year ago, I gave a talk where I said, ‘AI should be your co-founder,’ because it’s such a powerful ally for entrepreneurs,” Pavlou shared with Invest:. He noted that tools can support everything from research and product development to fundraising narratives: “It can help startup founders conduct market research, refine business models, develop products, design surveys, and even support their fundraising by improving how ideas are presented to VCs and angel investors.”

Importance of human intelligence

Even as AI becomes more prevalent, Florida’s business school leaders repeatedly return to a central theme: technology can accelerate work, but it cannot replace the full range of human leadership.

Pavlou described the automation challenge as also a talent-development imperative. “Automation and AI will significantly reshape the workforce, including roles that once required years of specialized training. One challenge this creates is fewer traditional entry-level roles, which makes preparation and upskilling even more important in today’s AI era,” he said.

His response emphasized a balance of applied experience, AI fluency, and human-centered capabilities. “Third, we focus heavily on what we call ‘Human Intelligence at Miami Herbert.’ As AI automates more tasks, inherently human skills like critical thinking, judgment, communication, teamwork, leadership, and empathy become even more valuable,” he said.

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